Other Arab news websites such as Egypt and Jordan, had been more low-key on coverage of the conflict until the ground invasion began last week.
By ARIEL BEN SOLOMONTHE AL JAZEERA English news site covers the Gaza conflict yesterday(photo credit: screenshot)
The Qatar-owned Al Jazeera media company has been supporting Hamas’s narrative since the latest conflict in Gaza began, with its website continually leading with pictures of Palestinian victims and alleged Israeli atrocities.Al Jazeera, the popular pan-Arab news site, tops its website with gruesome pictures and videos of dead bodies and bombed areas in Gaza on a daily basis.The station’s importance is greater during the holiday of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during the daytime and many are on vacation, spending more time watching television.Eyal Zisser, a Middle East expert from the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that Al Jazeera is fully supporting Hamas, and not the Palestinian people.Zisser said that the Qatar-owned station has been supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and was against the overthrow of former Egyptian Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi. Qatar also funds Hamas.On Sunday, the top story on the website was accompanied by a picture of what seems to be a dead body on the ground.When you click the picture, it opens up the story with a video showing dead bodies.“The number of martyrs rose to about 100 in Gaza today, who fell mostly due to a massacre in the Shejaia neighborhood, which faced indiscriminate Israeli bombing” the text next to the picture stated.Al Jazeera English also carried similar news items at the top of its website, but toned down some of the language.Its top story was more neutral, titled, “Israel steps up eastern Gaza bombardment,” and instead of citing 100 deaths, its subhead stated that “more than 60 Palestinians” were killed by heavy shelling, also noting that 13 Israeli soldiers died in Gaza.
“Al Jazeera America strives to publicly distance itself from its Qatari parents and portray its product as ‘unbiased, factbased… in-depth journalism.’ A look at its coverage of the current Gaza conflict, however, calls its claim of being unbiased into question,” said a report on Friday by the Washington- based Investigative Project on Terrorism non-profit organization.“The network’s pro-Hamas slant has been exhibited in its disproportionate emphasis on deaths of Palestinian civilians without almost any critical mention of Hamas’s intentional use of human shields – considered a war crime under international law,” it said.Other Arab news websites, especially those attributed to countries opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood, such as Egypt and Jordan, had been more low-key on coverage of the conflict until the ground invasion began last week.As the number of Palestinian casualties rose over the past weekend, “Arab street” anger has boiled over, leading to media in countries that oppose Hamas reporting on the causalities and alleged massacres.Even more balanced Arab personalities on Twitter have begun regularly tweeting pictures of dead Palestinian children and claims of “massacres.”Dalia Ezzat, a popular Middle East observer on Twitter, who has almost 43 thousand followers, tweeted on Sunday: “Netanyahu: ‘All civilian casualties are unintended by us, but intended by Hamas.’… Let’s compare the numbers!”
